COIN, HOOD Stocks Jump After US Regulator Greenlights Crypto Perpetual Futures

• Commodity Futures Trading Commission to allow prediction market Kalshi to list and trade U.S. Bitcoin perpetuals.   
• Crypto perpetual futures are already allowed in Europe. 
• Perpetual contracts, or "perps," are derivatives similar to standard futures contracts but differ because they lack an expiration date.

Coinbase (COIN) and Robinhood (HOOD) share prices gained 4% and 11%, respectively, on Friday after a U.S. regulator approved the nation’s first regulated Bitcoin perpetual contract, opening the door for mainstream domestic trading of a popular digital asset derivative that has largely existed overseas. 

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced it granted an approval order to KalshiEX LLC, a federally registered designated contract market, allowing the exchange to list a perpetual futures contract tied directly to the spot price of Bitcoin, designated as the BTCPERP contract.

Perpetual contracts, or "perps," are derivatives similar to standard futures contracts but differ because they lack an expiration date, allowing investors to hold their positions indefinitely. While highly popular in international, unregulated crypto markets, U.S. retail and institutional investors previously faced steep regulatory hurdles when attempting to trade them domestically.

Under the regulatory terms, Kalshi must maintain continuous compliance with the Commodity Exchange Act and all applicable CFTC provisions, according to the agency’s official release.

"This marks Kalshi’s evolution from prediction market leader to next-gen derivatives exchange," Kalshi Chief Executive Officer Tarek Mansour said in a statement. "Onshore, safe, and regulated perps will improve capital allocation and risk management for countless American businesses."

COIN and BTC Perps

Alongside the approval for Kalshi, federal regulators also signaled a broader expansion of the domestic digital asset derivatives market by greenlighting plans from Coinbase Financial Markets Inc., the futures division of major cryptocurrency platform Coinbase. The CFTC indicated it would permit certain perpetual futures listings through Coinbase's registered futures commission merchant.

Coinbase co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Brian Armstrong praised the development, characterizing the regulatory decisions as a milestone for the company and domestic digital asset participants seeking safer, regulated pathways. 

“We’re bringing proven global products under American regulation which is exactly how we make the US the global crypto leader,” wrote Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal in a post on X.

Perpetuals Vs Traditional Futures

Unlike a traditional futures contract, which was designed for markets that close overnight and on weekends, a perpetual contract is a type of derivative contract that has no fixed expiration date. 

Instead, counterparties periodically exchange a funding rate payment, similar to variation margin, that is designed to maintain relative price parity with the underlying asset’s spot price. “In markets that operate 24/7, the lack of an expiration date allows market participants to maintain continuous price exposure without periodic expirations and the associated costs of rolling over contracts,” CFTC Chairman Michael S. Selig wrote in a note. 

“Perpetual contracts were first theorized in a discussion paper published in 1992 by Nobel-prize winning economist Robert Schiller.1 Since then, perpetuals have become a foundational risk management and price discovery tool in the global crypto asset markets,” added Selig. 

COIN and HOOD Retail View 

Retail sentiment on Coinbase was “bearish” with “low” message volumes, while sentiment was “extremely bullish” for HOOD with “high” message volumes. 

Both HOOD and COIN stocks have lost about 19.3% year-to-date. 

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